Vanishing Tutorials – Key To The Highway (First 7 Sections)
#1 Solo 1
#2 Solo 2
# 3 Solo 3
#4 Solo 4
#5 Solo 5
#6 Verse 1
#7 Verse 2
CREATING BAR 5 VARIATIONS
Here’s the section I’m going to create the variations on:
What I’m looking to do is to make Bar 5 less boring and offer three ways of getting from that A root note on the downbeat of Bar 5 to the low E root note on the downbeat of Bar 6.
The first take replaces that bar of root notes with the 8-b7-6-ch device and creates a simple linear walk down to the low E at the start of bar 6:
Take 2 is something a little different. What I’ve done is take the standard kind of Bar 9 device that everyone from Duck Dunn to Tommy Shannon has used. In A the notes would be A to C# to A to G# (and then head to a G7 chord). Instead of the G#, I’ve gone to G as the b7 of the chord and then used that as the first note of a ‘Duck Dunn style’ last note triplet and simply run down from the G to F# to F. When you analyse those notes, you’ll see they are b7-6-ch…and that creates a layered 8-b7-6-ch device (as above) but played over one and a half beats instead of four beats:
For Take 3 I wanted to go up to the octave of E before dropping…and I used a standard R-3-4-5 device to do that. When I got to the E though (the 5th of A7) I used a Duck Dunn style triplet again and played E to D to B. The analysis shows 5 to 4 to 2….but you can almost think of it as an 8-b7-5 approach to the root note of the E7 chord in bar 6. Have a listen and see what you think:
Here’s a 5 Chorus MP3 File I created with Band IN A Box with the chords for KEY TO THE HIGHWAY so you can have a play!
FIVE WAYS I CAN HELP YOU
1. Three Things A Bass Line Has to Do A short series of articles on the important functions that a bass line has to do.
2. Learning From James Jamerson Vol 1. My best selling book on Amazon – it’s the start of a 4 volume dive into incorporating the ideas that Jamerson brought to the bass guitar into YOUR playing.
3. Learning From Paul McCartney Vol 1 . My newest book….great one for those on the cusp of being an intermediate level player!
4. How To Play Blues Rock Vol 1 My second best selling book – a three volume series that will take you through the idiomatic devices and rhythms needed to play blues and blues rock.
5. If you’re a beginner – read the sequence of articles starting with The Only 6 Things Bass Beginners Should Practice
Fair Use And Copyright
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